Viral Fire Challenge Leaves 11-year-old with second degree burns and burnt down house

In a rather ghastly incident, a Floridian youngster was on the brink of losing her life after she partook in a deadly social media challenge. The 11-year-old, whose identity remains undisclosed, decided to indulge in a rather obscure fire challenge which involved setting herself alight with a candle. Aside from being treated for second-degree burns, the youngster gutted her house during the time of the incident. Fortunately, the other three family members made it out unscathed.

While the young girl faces a long road to recovery; her mother revealed that the girl was released from the hospital on Wednesday and her parts of her body are covered with second-degree burns. The news sent shockwaves to netizens as soon as her sister Monessia Rhoden dropped details about the incident on a fundraising page. “Sadly, my 11-year-old little sister was severely burned in the fire trying to extinguish it, and is now In Tampa General hospital burn unit,” Monessia wrote in a post on Social Media.

The disturbing fire challenge has been doing the rounds and sees youngsters dousing their bodies in accelerant and lighting it. The inane act is said to have garnered momentum on Social Media, and comes with life-threatening consequences. Participants of the challenge have ended up requiring surgery and life-supporting treatments.

A similar incident surfaced in the year 2018, when Timiyah Landers, a young girl in Detroit called her friends over and decided to participate in the fire challenge. She carried out the act as soon as her mum left their room after offering pancakes to the girls. Landers’ parents were alerted after a “loud explosion” broke out, post which she was immediately placed on a bath and had water being sprayed on. Reports suggest that Landers had to be rushed to a burn unit and was put on a ventilator and was bandaged from head to her knees.

Indulging in dangerous social media tasks just for the fun of it is now being strongly condemned. St Petersburg Fire Rescue Deputy Fire Marshall, Lt Steven Lawrence firmly advised youngsters against such acts. “What it's gonna do is it's gonna heat up your skin and eventually the alcohol is gonna burn off,” Lt Steven Larence said. “But it's also gonna destroy your skin tissue and the areas around that, it's gonna start to heat up and basically you're gonna melt your own skin and cook your own skin,” he added.